Here’s a classic American political story about the stresses and strains of those ever-contradictory obligations. I refer to campaign promises and practical governing.

You can always count on this kind of story to unfold a few weeks after November’s euphoria and a few weeks before January’s inaugural.

It’s the old “be careful what you wish for because you might get it” phase.

The story begins in the mid-1960s. The Johnson administration deplored that millions of “rich” Americans had availed themselves of sophisticated tax deductions and paid practically no personal income tax. Congress enacted the “alternative minimum tax.”